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Cell structure and the cell cycle. Biomolecules introduction. Overview roles of the elements (with a focus on Carbon) and water in the cell. Overview of amino acids as 'building blocks'. Thermodynamics and chemical reactions in the cell. Evolution and conservation. Minerals and vitamins in the body and their function.

Amino acids and their functional groups. Linking them together through peptide bonds. Structure/Function relationships. Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary protein structure in detail. Post-translational modifications, e.g. glycosylation.

Enzyme catalysis, role of energy of activation. Chemical reactions in the cell, control through negative/positive feedback. Active site features and characteristics. Enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibition principles (Michaelis-Menten and Lineweaver-Burk analysis). Competitive and non-competitive & uncompetitive inhibition. Mechanism of action of enzymes.

Overview of interacting biochemical pathways in the cell and their regulation/cross-talk. Focus primarily on ATP generation via carbohydrate metabolism through Glycolysis, Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. Fate of pyruvate. Gluconeogenesis. Regulation of metabolic pathways, energy demands. Fatty acid metabolism, beta-oxidation.

The use of pipettes and making up solutions (e.g. testing accuracy and repeatability, making up buffers and solutions, calculations). UV-Visible Absorption Spectrophotometry (e.g. absorption spectrum analysis, biuret method). Separation of Bioconstituents (e.g. Gel Filtration). Proteins (e.g. Protein Extraction, protein concentration estimation, SDS-PAGE). Enzymology (e.g. Alkaline phosphatase assay, determination of Km and Vmax). Carbohydrates (e.g. determination of glucose concentration). Lipids (e.g. thin layer chromatography of lipids).

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Lecture delivery will engage with a variety of methods including on-line movie animations, visual demonstrations, large diagrams for illustration purposes as well as information from personal experience in the field and slide handouts. Novel methods using smartphone app/web-based quizzes will also be utilised. Course material and revision quizzes will be made readily available on a virtual learning environment (VLE) for student access. The combination of these methods will facilitate in re-enforcing the student’s understanding of some of the technical and mechanistic processes involved. Various aligned classroom assessment techniques will also be employed. These may include the background knowledge probe, the one minute paper, small group interaction and discussion, question & answer sessions, team presentations to class colleagues, pop-quizzes and open ended questioning. Access to course textbooks will be provided through the DkIT eBook service which will allow students 24/7 access to suitable reading material. A range of self-assessment, self-reflection and peer learning exercises will be built in to deliveries of both lectures and practical sessions.

All lecture notes will be provided to the students through a VLE. This VLE will also be used for access to helpful YouTube video clips and peer reviewed publications of interest to the course. Students will have 24/7 access to the VLE allowing them to download and study at their own pace and in their own time. Screencast and Podcast tutorials will also be made available to the students to download and listen to in their own time. This will facilitate learning and understanding for all students, but in particular the international students.

Throughout the semester, students will be provided with formative assessments both in lectures and in laboratory environments. These are designed to facilitate group work in problem solving situations. These assessments are built in to the lecture and practical components.

Breakthroughs in the life science will be sent to the students on a regular basis. This will involve novel developments in the field in addition to postings on jobs/careers in the industry. This concept facilitates the students in preparing for life after college in the life science industry.

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Practical / Skill set tests / Lab write-up reports. In the practical sessions, students will focus on improving their practical skill set, while also dealing with obtaining and analysing data in addition to drawing conclusions from the data. Students will also perform formative competency skill set tests (e.g. pipette tests, graph tests, data handling test, data interpretation tests etc.) all generated to assist understanding and improve technique. Students will work on an interactive lab manual which will contain in-class exercises for review. Group (Peer-assisted learning) work will be encouraged. Technology use will also be encouraged throughout (for example using excel for graphing / trend line generation etc.). The requirement to complete exercises in the practical manual and/or submit certain laboratory reports in combination with ongoing formative assessments is intended to act as serious encouragement for students to focus on the laboratory work. Marks for these exercises/reports will be based on students’ ability to record primary data, calculate derivatives from these, display these data, comment on their meaning in the context of the actual experiment and associated theory, and discuss limitations to the experiment and the results obtained. An incremental marking system will be employed to improve feedback uptake while a suite of technologies will be utilised to enhance assessment in practical sessions (see www.teamshp.ie). For example, some aspects such as custom recorded pre-practical videos in combination with smartphone based quizzes, electronic lab notebooks, VLE based rubrics and various digital feedback approaches may be employed.

A continuous assessment exam will take place in the module. This will require the students to answer selected short answer questions in addition to drawing diagrams of cellular processes. Formative quizzes will be performed throughout the module to facilitate learning and understanding of topics covered in addition to preparing the students to the style of this summative exam.